Word of the Day for Sunday, February 14, 2010
billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\, noun;plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:
A love letter or note.
Perhaps she just looked first into the bouquet, to see whether there was a billet-doux hidden among the flowers; but there was no letter.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
Young lovers in Victorian England, forbidden to express their affection in public and fearful that strict parents would intercept their billets-doux, sent coded messages through the personal columns in newspapers.
-- Susan Adams, "I've got a secret", Forbes, September 20, 1999
This is very amusing, Paul, writing critics little billet-doux in one's head is always good for a giggle, but you really ought to find yourself a pot and get it boiling, don't you think?In French, billet-doux means "sweet note;" or "short note" (billet, "note" + doux, "sweet," from Latin dulcis).
-- Stephen King, Misery
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